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Lego-Type Brick's Potential to Replace Concrete and Cement

By Bernadette Salapare | Apr 06, 2024 06:38 AM EDT

The new Lego-style brick, less expensive and requiring less time to produce, could reportedly replace cement and concrete. Mineral fiber was used to create this material, which was also completely recyclable.

(Photo : Building Design and Construction/Renco USA )

New Lego-Style Brick

Concreting and cement could be replaced with a new construction brick similar to LEGO bricks since it shortens the time and money required for construction. As mentioned, it has a major effect, causing the industry to change significantly. The United States of America is starting to become a market for a new brick built of mineral fiber.

Renco, the manufacturer, incorporates glass fibers, natural calcium compounds, and resin into its product. Because of its many advantages, it is an excellent substitute for various materials such as concrete, cement, or wood. Similar to LEGO sections, this novel building material is interlocking. This simplifies the assembly process, which in turn reduces the amount of time needed to build.

Moreover, Renco encourages environmentally responsible and recyclable building practices with the material it has presented. In contrast to wood and concrete construction, Renco exhibits superior environmental friendliness and sustainability due to its 100% recyclable nature, reduced carbon footprint, and absence of debris during construction.

Patrick E. Murphy, a former United States congressman overseeing the organization's expansion, asserts that the material's resistance to rust, decay, termite infestation, mold growth, and fire retardancy renders it superior to any existing building material. In addition, it is reportedly 23 times stronger than concrete and can withstand hurricanes and other extreme weather occurrences.

Renco USA employs a proprietary mixture of recycled glass fibers, recycled plastic, resin, and stone to manufacture blocks that resemble Lego bricks. These blocks are then utilized in designing and constructing buildings reinforced with mineral composite fiber.

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Apartment Made from Lego-Style Brick

The arquitectonica-designed residential high-rise in Palm Springs was fabricated by the Florida-based manufacturer Renco using modular, Lego-like blocks constructed from repurposed materials.

Additionally, the company claims that these structures, constructed from a composite of glass fibers, resin, and stone, were engineered to be more durable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective than conventional materials. In the aftermath of earthquakes in Turkey, the blocks were initially utilized to facilitate speedier and more cost-effective infrastructure reconstruction following natural disasters.

Each block is produced using glass fibers, resin, and stone. Forty percent of the resources used in the production of each block are recycled from other industries, such as the massive boat-building industry, which would otherwise be thrown away. Every precision-cut block has a rectangular shape and is adorned with a sequence of knobs that stack and interlock similarly to Lego blocks.

Furthermore, the researchers stated that the typical block has dimensions of eight inches by eight inches by sixteen inches (20 centimeters by 20 centimeters) and weighs twenty percent less than a conventional concrete block. On the other hand, Arquitectonica's apartment complex, the first structure in the United States to use blocks, consists of 96 apartments dispersed across four rectangular structures that are identical and distinguished by colorful entrances.

In a recent development, the Chinese materials business Yi Design created a porous brick that is made up of ninety percent recycled ceramic waste and has the potential to be utilized in flood mitigation.

Related Article: Innovative Affordable Housing: Crafting Homes with Lego-like Blocks from Recycled Materials

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